This reflection by Duncan at The Last Minute (via Antoine) matches my observations of the events,

I couldn’t help but notice how different my media consumption has been surrounding the terrorist attacks in London from September 11th. When my girlfriend came and hammered on my door on the morning of September 11th I turned on CNN and just watched. When I heard about the bombings in London I looked it up on Flickr, Nowpublic, Wikipedia, Wikinews to mention a few.

Even though I turned to the BBC News rather than CNN on September 11th, my reaction to the bombings was very similar to Duncan’s. I sought information through the blogs of Londonites I knew, and as each one started posting, I followed an immense web of links to further information all written by “real people”.

It was surreal to see camera phone photos and videos within minutes of the event. Over time, BBC News has accumulated all these photos, but to see them pop up on independent blogs and services like Flickr first spoke volumes about the movement away from the classic information media.